


Disease in the Darkness

by Kaii_Leiko



Category: My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Genre: F/F, Romance, Sad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-07-12 15:58:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7112536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaii_Leiko/pseuds/Kaii_Leiko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Twilight had been warned dark magic was dangerous. She thought she could handle it. Unfortunately dabbling in dark magic has left Twilight with a deadly disease that there does not seem to be a cure for. Will she succumb to the darkness, or will friendship and love be enough to make the remainder of her time happy?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Disease in the Darkness

Everything was dark around her, not a single shred of light could pierce the infinite blackness. Twilight had no sense of direction or time, nor could she move. There was only weightlessness and fear. The violet unicorn couldn't even use magic, which was what concerned her the most. It was then that she realized she was in a nightmare, one that had been plaguing her for several nights in a row.

  
Suddenly the silence was broken and the echoing sound of hoofsteps could be heard faintly. Somepony was trotting to her, it seemed. Twilight was only aware of how close the intruder was when she felt their warm breath on her face, though she was still unable to see them. For a moment Twilight thought that maybe it could be Luna, yet it seemed unlikely the princess would introduce herself in such a way. A faint light glowed dimly and illuminated the area. Twilight's eyes adjusted and soon enough she could make out the shape before her.

  
The unicorn in front of her had a darker shade of purple for a coat and spirals of black mixed with the mauve on her horn. Unkind eyes stared back at Twilight behind dark red irises. It proved extremely unsettling and it only got worse when Twilight realized she was looking at what was essentially an exact replica of herself, save those darker features. The doppelgänger gave her a cruel smirk and spoke.

  
_You think you're so special don't you? So powerful, so strong, so good at magic. But you went and took it too far didn't you? And now you're going to pay for it._ Her voice was similar to Twilight's except that even when her mouth moved Twilight heard the voice in her head. It was distorted and echoed painfully within her skull.

  
Twilight didn't understand what the doppelgänger meant. Instead she could only bring herself to ask as she finally found her voice. "Who are you?"

  
_I'm you. All the dark parts anyway. The fun ones, too. Every bad thought you've ever had, every negative feeling you've ever felt... That's me, Twilight. I'm all of that wrapped into one neat little pony shaped package._

  
Twilight furrowed her brows and narrowed her eyes to glare at the unwelcome intruder. She was in a dream, she told herself. There was nothing to be afraid of no matter how real it seemed. "What the heck do you want?"

  
_You're so friggin' smart so why don't you figure it out?_

It wasn't until the nightmare leaned in towards her that Twilight felt truly frightened. For the first time throughout all her nightmares she felt as though she were genuinely in danger. Twilight opened her mouth to scream, but never got the chance. The faint light fizzled out and Twilight was left in the darkness once more.

  
**

  
"Twilight! Twilight, wake up!"

  
Twilight was being rocked back and forth, a high pitched scream piercing into the otherwise silence of the night. She then realized it was herself who was screaming and she stopped. She was panting loudly and her fur was drenched in sweat. It was actually Spike that had woken her up. He was standing over her with a look of concern across his face.

  
"Twilight are you okay?"

  
"Y-yeah Spike...I'm fine." She took a moment to calm down and catch her breath.

  
"That's every night this week Twilight, I think you need to talk to somepony about this. There's something wrong."

  
Spike had mentioned this to her before, but she'd always dismissed it. They were only nightmares and she had been sure she'd get over them at some point. She clearly wasn't though. Spike was right, and there was something wrong. "Yeah, I'll take care of it in the morning. Just go back to sleep, Spike."

  
He nodded. "Okay..." He hopped down from her bed and returned to his own. He was asleep in moments. Twilight on the other hand didn't sleep for the rest of the night. Images of her other haunted her until morning.

  
**

  
Neither she nor Spike had mentioned what had happened during the night. Twilight had promised she'd take care of it and Spike trusted her to. She went about her morning as usual. She'd had some breakfast and then started to hit the books. She focused on books about nightmares. Her books always had the answers.

  
According to her books it wasn't uncommon for somepony suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to have recurring nightmares, but she definitely was not suffering from that. Nor was it some sort of deep trauma rising to the surface. It didn't mention anything like the other image of herself in her dreams either and she was starting to wonder if it had more to do with her magic than the dreams themselves. After all, in all of them her magic didn't work. _Could it be some sort of manifestation of my fear of losing my magic?_

  
She sighed. Twilight then shut the book and levitated it back to the shelf where she'd taken it from. Only it didn't levitate back at all. There was no purple aura around her horn, no flow of magic rushing through her; she felt nothing. She began hyperventilating. I'm just freaking out. I was just thinking about how worried I was of not being able to do magic, and then I can't do it. It's all psychological. she thought to herself. She tried to calm down but no matter how she tried she could use magic at all. As she kept trying there seemed to be some sort of pressure building in her horn. She heard that awful chuckling again, her other was laughing. Then something she didn't even know was possible could happen did. Her horn cracked.

  
She'd had her horn stolen from Discord before, but never cracked. Never under an strain, or pressure or using any difficult spell. Especially not for a simple levitation spell, in fact as far as she knew unicorn horns couldn't be broken. Hers had cracked though, and she felt it. She howled in pain. She fell to the ground and clutches her hooves to her head at the base of her horn. The pain didn't subside for several minutes, and after only one she couldn't even scream any more. When finally the pain cleared enough for her to think straight she forced herself to stand up. She knew this was bad and wasn't exactly sure what to do, so she attempted to use a simple fixing spell to mend her horn.

  
Immediately she was assaulted with pain again and the pressure returned. She noticed some kind of black smoke seemed to be oozing from where her horn had cracked as well. To make matters worse her chest began hurting too. She brought a hoof to her chest and began coughing. When she finally stopped she looked down at her hoof. Red had mixed with the purple of her fur, blood. That can't be good... was the last thing she though before she blacked out, unable to handle the pain any longer.

  
**

  
Twilight woke several hours later in Ponyville hospital. She hadn't yet opened her eyes but she knew she was there none the less. Spike had most likely found her and gotten help, then she obviously would have been brought to the hospital. She could hear the beeping of some kind of monitor beside her bed. She didn't want to open her eyes because that would mean facing reality. The only good thing at the moment was that she wasn't in pain any more. Then she heard concerned voices around her.

  
"Ah sure hope she's gonna be okay, poor gal."

  
"Can a unicorn's horn even break?"

  
"I have certainly never heard of such a thing happening."

  
"Oh my...This is just awful, I wish there were something we could do to help."

  
"Be quiet, you're going to disturb her!"

  
The last one was Spike. Twilight groggily opened her eyes. She was greeted with the sight of six very concerned friends sitting around her. She looked at each of her friends, she wasn't exactly sure what to say.

  
"How 're 'ya feelin, sugarcube?" Applejack placed her hoof onto Twilight's

  
"Spike came and told us what happened." Pinkie Pie.

  
"We were all so worried." Fluttershy's voice cracked a little as she spoke.

  
"What's wrong with me?" was all Twilight could think to say.

  
Spike climbed onto the bed beside her and spoke softly. "The doctors don't know what's wrong with you, Twilight. Nopony has ever heard of a unicorn horn cracking like yours did. When I got back home and saw you laying there and your horn like that, and the blood...I thought...You were..." He choked on his last word and suppressed a sob.

  
Twilight raised her hoof and patted her assistant's head. "Thank you Spike, for getting help. I feel a lot better, my horn doesn't hurt any more." She gave him the sweetest smile she could manage under the circumstance, and then turned to all her friends. "And thank all of you, for coming here." They all nodded, it was natural for them to have come to check on their friend. "I just wish I knew what happened."

  
"I think maybe I can help you there." Everypony turned towards the door. Princess Celestia stood there, her magnificent mane waving behind her. Her face wasn't kind and happy as it usually was. She seemed broken, somehow. She walked towards Twilight and her friends, the serious look on her face not subsiding. "Twilight, my most faithful student..." Celestia began. She lowered her head by Twilight's and nuzzled her softly. Her eyes were watery. "You have always studied hard and pushed yourself beyond your limits. All for the sake of knowledge, you thrive on it and this time I'm afraid it's been your undoing. I showed you a little bit of what dark magic can do for your test in the crystal empire. I should have warned you of the dangers of using such magic. You must have come back to Ponyville and began studying on the subject. I doubt you would have wanted to use magic for darkness, so all that I can think is for the sake of knowledge you attempted to learn what you could."

  
"But I never did any difficult spells, Princess, I swear. I would never do something so dangerous."

  
"I didn't expect you to come home and study it at all. I fear I am to blame for this, Twilight Sparkle. This is my fault. Certainly, in small doses a pony such as yourself could handle the magic, as you did in the Crystal Empire with Sombra's door. Only an Alicorn, however, possesses enough strength to handle such magic. Otherwise it can begin to rot your horn. It seems even the little you did study on your return has been enough to cause that. You now have a disease caused from exposure to dark magic. It affects the infected both mentally and physically. As I previously said, it rots your horn and the dark magic coursing through your body is several... Unpleasant side effects. I am so sorry." It was clear to everypony the princess was trying to keep herself in check, and keep her voice steady. She wasn't doing a very good job.

  
"Um, well...Excuse me your highness...I was just, um, wondering, um...How do you cure this disease?" Fluttershy shuffled a little as she spoke.

  
Silence hung in the air because Celestia didn't respond. All eyes were fixed on her and awaited her response. Her eyes were closed and when they opened she couldn't bear to look at any of the ponies before her. She turned away and tears began to freely fall down her cheek. "You don't. There is no known cure for this disease. I wanted to be here when you found out Twilight...You only have a few months left at the most."


End file.
